Woman's Hour · Oct 15, 2026 · 57:48
Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
An estimated three million deepfake images were non-consensually requested from Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok around Christmas of last year, mostly of women and children. Since then, UK investigations have been unable to find or charge any of the users who made those requests. Jess Davies, a presenter targeted by this image abuse, reported it to the police at the time but is now pursuing her own civil action. She joins Anita Rani, alongside BBC Technology reporter Laura Cress, to discuss the developments.
After more headlines today about shortages of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), clinicians are urging women to seek advice if their medication has been affected. The warning follows official confirmation from the Department of Health that supplies of major HRT patch brands have been disrupted. Anita is joined by Dr Paula Briggs, Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health at Liverpool Woman’s NHS Foundation Trust, and Roisin Hillman, co-founder of Menopause Together, the first menopause charity in Northern Ireland.
Shabana Basij-Rasikh is a leading advocate for girls' education in Afghanistan. In 2001, when she was still a teenager, she co-founded a boarding school in Kabul called the School of Leadership (SOLA) to enable girls to learn. Last month Shabana was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 world’s most influential rising stars. She joins Anita to talk about her campaigning career and decision to create a post-graduate scholarship for a woman like her to attend the University of Oxford.
Esmée Gummer recently completed her own Guinness World Record challenge, having run between every city in the UK, hosting free 5km clubs in each. An incredible achievement because when she was aged 18, Esmée woke up paralysed following complications during surgery - and she had to re-learn how to walk, and eventually run. Esmée didn't want to make the challenge just about her own achievement, so the record is for the most amount of run clubs held in different cities and those who attended any can apply for a certificate. Esmee tells Anita about her passion to encourage people to connect through running, not racing.
Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt